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"Greensleeves" is a traditional English folk song and tune, a ground of the form called a romanesca.

A broadside ballad by this name was registered at the London Stationer's Company in 1580 as "A New Northern Dittye of the Lady Greene Sleeves". It then appears in the surviving A Handful of Pleasant Delights (1584) as "A New Courtly Sonnet of the Lady Green Sleeves. To the new tune of Green sleeves."

The tune is found in several late 16th century and early 17th century sources, such as Ballet's MS Lute Book and Het Luitboek van Thysius, as well as various manuscripts preserved in the Cambridge University libraries.

Greensleeves and Henry VIII

There is a persistent belief that Greensleeves was composed by Henry VIII for his lover and future queen consort Anne Boleyn. Anne rejected Henry's attempts to seduce her and this rejection is apparently referred to in the song, when the writer's love "cast me off discourteously." However, Henry did not write "Greensleeves," which is probably Elizabethan in origin and is based on an Italian style of composition that did not reach England until after his death.

Lyrics

Alas, my love, you do me wrong,
To cast me off discourteously.
For I have loved you well and long,
Delighting in your company.

Chorus:
Greensleeves was all my joy
Greensleeves was my delight,
Greensleeves was my heart of gold,
And who but my lady greensleeves.

Your vows you've broken, like my heart,
Oh, why did you so enrapture me?
Now I remain in a world apart
But my heart remains in captivity.

chorus

I have been ready at your hand,
To grant whatever you would crave,
I have both wagered life and land,
Your love and good-will for to have.

chorus

If you intend thus to disdain,
It does the more enrapture me,
And even so, I still remain
A lover in captivity.

chorus

My men were clothed all in green,
And they did ever wait on thee;
All this was gallant to be seen,
And yet thou wouldst not love me.

chorus

Thou couldst desire no earthly thing,
but still thou hadst it readily.
Thy music still to play and sing;
And yet thou wouldst not love me.

chorus

Well, I will pray to God on high,
that thou my constancy mayst see,
And that yet once before I die,
Thou wilt vouchsafe to love me.

chorus

Ah, Greensleeves, now farewell, adieu,
To God I pray to prosper thee,
For I am still thy lover true,
Come once again and love me.

chorus

Lyrical Interpretation

One possible interpretation of the lyrics is that Lady Green Sleeves was a promiscuous young woman and perhaps a prostitute. At the time, the word "green" had sexual connotations, most notably in the phrase "a green gown", a reference to the way that grass stains might be seen on a lady's dress if she had made love outside.

An alternative explanation is that Lady Green Sleeves was, as a result of her attire, incorrectly assumed to be immoral. Her "discourteous" rejection of the singer's advances supports the contention that she is not.

In Nevill Coghill's translation of The Canterbury Tales, he explains that "green was the color of lightness in love. This is echoed in 'Greensleeves is my delight' and elsewhere."

Alternative lyrics

The hymn What Child Is This? by William Chatterton Dix, set to the Greensleeves tune, is used across the Western Christian church.

A variation was used extensively in the 1962 movie How the West Was Won (film) as the song "Home in the Meadow", lyrics by Sammy Cahn, performed by Debbie Reynolds.

Early literary references

In Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, written around 1602, the character Mistress Ford refers twice without any explanation to the tune of "Greensleeves," and Falstaff later exclaims:

Let the sky rain potatoes! Let it thunder to the tune of 'Greensleeves'!

These allusions suggest that the song was already well known at that time.

In popular culture

Recordings

• Odetta–1957 album At the Gate of Horn
• John Coltrane–1961 album Africa/Brass
• Vince Guaraldi Trio–1965 soundtrack A Charlie Brown Christmas
• Elvis Presley–1968 retitled as "Stay Away" B-side of "U.S. Male"; featured in film Stay Away Joe
• James Taylor–1968 debut Album James Taylor
• Jeff Beck–1968 album Truth
• Glen Campbell–1972 album The Artistry of Glen Campbell
• Leonard Cohen–1974 album New Skin for the Old Ceremony
• Flanders and Swann–The Greensleeves Monologue Annotated
• Olivia Newton-John–1976 album Come on Over
• Mason Williams with Mannheim Steamroller–1987 album Classical Gas
• Loreena McKennitt–1991 album The Visit
• Timo Tolkki–1994 album Classical Variations and Themes
• Blackmore's Night–1997 debut album Shadow of the Moon
• Vanessa Carlton–2002 album Maybe This Christmas
• Jethro Tull–2003 album The Jethro Tull Christmas Album
• Kevin Max–2005 album Holy Night
• Derek Trucks Band–2006 DVD Songlines Live
• The King's Singers–2008 album Simple Gifts
• Daniel Kobialka– "Greensleeves Fantasy"; 2009 album "Musical Inspirations Series: Peace"

Television

• Blackadder II, in the episode "Bells", as the backing track to a medieval style 'hits compilation' parody.
• The Office (US) episode "Take Your Daughter to Work Day" features Dwight Schrute playing "Greensleeves" on his recorder to a group of children. He says: "That was 'Greensleeves,' the English ballad dedicated to the beheaded Anne Boleyn."
• An episode of Pepper Ann has P.A. pretending to know how to play piano by purchasing a keyboard piano that is programmed to play Greensleves while lighting up the notes that are played.
• Lassie, as the theme song beginning with the fifteenth season.

Media

Greensleeves is in Dorian mode, though modern musicians sometimes play it in the natural minor scale instead, as in this realization:

See also

• "Turandot (Busoni)" Act 2 Scene 1 opens with the tune, which Busoni thought sounded Chinese.

References

1. Weir, Alison. Henry VIII: The King and His Court, page 131, Ballantine Books, 2002, ISBN 0-34543-708-X
2. Brown, Meg Lota & Kari Boyd McBride. Women's Roles in the Renaissance, page 101, Greenwood Press, 2005, ISBN 0-31332-210-4
3. ^ Vance Randolph "Unprintable" Ozark Folksongs and Folklore, Volume I, Folksongs and Music, page 47, University of Arkansas Press, 1992, ISBN 1-55728-231-5
4. Chaucer, Geoffrey (2003-02-04). The Canterbury Tales (in Middle English). trans. Nevill Coghill. The Penguin Classics Library Complete Collection. ISBN 0-140-42438-5. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |origdate= (help)CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)

External links

• Transcription of A Handful of Pleasant Delights (1584)
• Andrew Kuntz, The Fiddler's Companion: see under Greensleeves

• English folk songs
• Military marches
• 16th-century songs
• Hymn tunes